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Potential brain switch responsible for our behavioural change identified

A new study by investigators at the University of Michigan and Eli Lilly may reveal the "switch" that helps our brains to make the shift from current behaviours to new ones. They measured levels of a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, which is involved in attention and memory, while rats monitored a screen for a signal. At the end of each trial, the rat had to indicate if a signal had ...
Doctors save Ohio boy by printing an airway tube

In a medical first, doctors used plastic particles and a 3-D laser printer to create an airway splint to save the life of a baby boy who used to stop breathing nearly every day.It's the latest advance from the booming field of regenerative medicine, making body parts in the lab.In the case of Kaiba (KEYE'-buh) Gionfriddo, doctors didn't have a moment to spare. Because of a birth ...
Mexico’s Role as Top Economic Partner recognized in Michigan

When the Hon. Vicente Sanchez-Ventura, Consul of Mexico in Detroit, leaves his post in June after seven years of service, his departure will be felt not only by the thousands of Mexicans in Michigan, but also by diplomatic colleagues, government officials, and organizations around the ...
Michigan senators seek answers on Ontario nuclear storage project

Michigan senators approved a resolution Wednesday calling on Ontario power officials to answer questions before proceeding with a controversial nuclear waste storage project. For the past decade, Ontario Power Generation has been carrying out plans for a deep geologic repository - a massive underground storage vault for low- to medium-level nuclear waste - in the municipality of Kincardine. ...
Snyder Mich. could still get Medicaid expansion

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Republican Gov. Rick Snyder says he is hopeful he can still broker an agreement with the Republican-led Legislature to expand Medicaid coverage to low-income ...

Movie Review

Jarhead

Sam Mendes Jarhead, based on the bestselling memoir by Anthony Swofford, is set in 1990 during the Gulf War, but it is not particularly about the Gulf War. In fact, it is not really about war itself, which is a topic too obviously enormous and complex for any one movie to try to ta ... ...

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Blackhawks Red Wings have 2 of NHLs top coaches

DETROIT - Joel Quenneville has accomplished a lot in the NHL, hoisting the Stanley Cup once and with as many postseason victories as any active coach.The Chicago Blackhawks coach, though, has never gotten past the Detroit Red Wings in the playoffs.Quenneville is 0-5 as a head coach against the Red Wings in postseason series, getting eliminated by them in 2009 to end his first season in Chicago, ...
Lions Suh ready to lead defensive line Schwartz says

Detroit Lions at OTAs: The Detroit Lions held OTA's Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at the practice facility in Allen Park. Rookies and veterans took part on the practice. Kirthmon F. Dozier/Detroit Free ...
Snyder to visit Israel in June

LANSING — Gov. Rick Snyder is planning a trip to Israel in June, his office confirmed today.Details of the trip are still being finalized, spokeswoman Sara Wurfel told the Free Press.Snyder has made trade missions to Asia and Europe. This will be his first trip to Israel as governor.Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm visited Israel in 2008 and signed an agreement with the country establishing a ...
Alumni protest Detroit Northwestern High School closing

"Children need this school," said Northwestern High School alumni president. "This school means a lot to the whole community. To take this public school away and put in a self-governing charter school with an application process will be something ...
Peters urges probe of Detroit waste storage

U.S. Rep. Gary Peters has taken to the House floor to criticize the storage of piles of an oil-refining byproduct known as petroleum coke along the Detroit River. The Bloomfield Township Democrat failed to win approval for an amendment to legislation on the Keystone Pipeline requiring an investigation of the storage. He said Wednesday that Congress needs to act to protect "families and ...

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New York Marriott Financial Center Hotel

I arrived by taxi to the hotel which is just a block from the former World Trade Center site. The ...

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Potential brain 'switch' responsible for our behavioural change identified

A new study by investigators at the University of Michigan and Eli Lilly may reveal the "switch" that helps our brains to make the shift from current behaviours to new ones.

They measured levels of a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, which is involved in attention and memory, while rats monitored a screen for a signal. At the end of each trial, the rat had to indicate if a signal had occurred.

Researchers noticed that if a signal occurred after a long period of monitoring or "non-signal" processing, there was a spike in acetylcholine in the rat's right prefrontal cortex. No such spike occurred for another signal occurring shortly afterwards.

"In other words, the increase in acetylcholine seemed to activate or 'switch on' the response to the signal, and to be unnecessary if that response was already activated," said Cindy Lustig, one of the study's senior authors and an associate professor in the U-M Department of Psychology.

The researchers repeated the study in humans using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures brain activity, and also found a short increase in right prefrontal cortex activity for the first signal in a series.

To connect the findings between rats and humans, they measured changes in oxygen levels, similar to the changes that produce the fMRI signal, in the brains of rats performing the task. ...